Iv) Crisis management

i) In November 2010 when Qantas Airbus A380 had an emergency landing in Singapore, the Twittersphere falsely reported that a plane had crashed. Qantas shares slumped by 3% but later recovered when the true story was known.

"...With smart phones and social media energising a new breed of citizen-witnesses who keep a minute-by-minute account of customer service failings, politicians' missteps and corporate sloppiness" communications is a discipline in flux where the rules, at least as previously understood, no longer pass muster..."

Emily Parkinson, 2012a

ii) London Tube and bus bombings in July 2005. For the first 3 hours the official line was that the incidents were the result of a "power surge". Yet within the first 90 minutes, social media had identified that explosive devices were the cause. Soon afterwards traditional media outlets like BBC News were inundated with e-mails, texts, digital pictures and video files.

These 2 examples emphasize that in the digital age you have to respond to an event within a few minutes - or quicker.